So Sweet, So Powerful Laura by Re'Nae
The movie Laura discusses the death of a woman named Laura who we later find out is not dead at all. Interesting right? Because the murder is about her, of course she will hold attention, but she also has a power presence. The most we see of Laura for the first hour are portraits and flashbacks. I want to discuss a flashback. The scene starts in a diner where Laura is enthusiastic and determined about presenting her magazine idea to gossip columnist named Waldo. Waldo said “I was annoyed by the incident, but there was something about her. I had to see her again”. Evidently,from his first interaction with Laura, she made an impression on him. When it comes to the topic of Laura, most would agree that throughout the entire movie, she takes the attention, so it is imperative that we analyze how Laura dominates the camera.
Going back to the scene stated, the overall set up implies that Laura is the power source. She is standing above Waldo while he is sitting and eating. He has no choice except to pay attention to her, though he tries his best to only focus on his meal. While she is presenting this idea to him, she is assertively calm, and confident. He however is so distracted and intrigued by her that he can not focus on his lunch, which he tries many times to do. The first frame of them at table initiates the power dynamic between the two.
The frame also signifies the structure of their relationship. Throughout the entire movie, Waldo was trying to get Laura to love him. She had a fiance, and Waldo played the role of the “ boy that can’t get the girl”. Since that scene, it foreshadows that Waldo would spend the movie admiring and looking up to Laura, even though he wanted more from her. To continue, the frame itself is tightly framed. It focuses the attention on solely those two characters. Even the food is not placed in the entire frame, which is what Waldo was using as a distraction from her, which illustrates the idea that Laura is pleasing to him.
Furthermore, the lighting in this particular scene also emphasis the facial expressions of the characters. We can see Laura’s face illuminated for the purposes of identifying her power in facial expressions rather than her body. She actually holds her poster board against her body for most of the scene so that it is not the focus. Adding the light between them makes Laura more prominent. Along with that, the expressions from Waldo are significant because he is obviously infatuated with her, with a hint of annoyance. Waldo’s focus is filling his stomach, but he is interested in Laura. Not only the light in this shot, but also the angle itself assist with emphasising the importance of Laura through the eyes Waldo. It is easy to identify his attitude because the shot is a straight angle. We can see both characters equally. We get a glimpse of his reactions to Laura, while also focusing on Laura as an individual.
Throughout the movie, Laura and her face are the key features of her entire body.This is the first scene when Laura is alive and even in this scene she is dressed very modest. She even has on a hat, which is not uncommon for femme fatales this early on. Even the times she has on strapless dresses, her face is what stands out. She also has an innocent face, which makes her different from other female leads we’ve seen. Throughout the film, Laura was not over sexualized rather she is engaged, and acts as such. Throughout the movie, the majority of Laura’s outfits are in fact modest, with the exception of a few dresses and her portrait. Her style of dress also emphasis the idea of her power and control. She has this understanding that she is beautiful in tn the face, therefore she does not need to dress overly sexy to gain the attention of the men she encounters. This also plays a part of her personality because she is seen as respectful. She has a husband, so she her attire is also based on that concept as well.
Laura is obviously a prominent character because it is named after her. This scene in particular is significant because it is the first time we see Laura alive, which gives us a look into Laura’s characteristics, and personality instead of those being told to us. Laura definitely was a powerful character and the presence she had was dynamic. The scene used many techniques through lighting, angles and costume in order to emphasize the importance of Laura as a character, and bring more attention to her as the film moved along. The execution of the scene made it easier to understand the characteristics of Laura as the film continued and also touched on the relationship between Waldo and her. The scene captured his reaction to her and set the foundation of the interactions viewers should expect from them throughout the movie. Overall, the importance of the scene was to not only view Laura in a light different from other femme fatales, but to also touch on the relationship between Laura and Waldo and how it impacted the plot of the film.
One of the first things I noticed about your paper was that there is a decent amount of typos, formatting issues, and an arguable overuse of the name Laura. Those are nitpicky things that I know we aren’t supposed to comment on but I still think they matter. Anyway, I’ll start with my critiques. I think it would have been really helpful if you were able to create more of this sense of building to completion throughout the entire paper through smoother connections and transitions between paragraphs. In a way it almost felt as if each paragraph was a small argument rather than a component of a larger picture. Also, you talked a lot about how the scene set up the relationship, but not so much about how it impacted the plot outside of that. Your final sentence makes it seem as though it impacted the relationship and plot distinctly, so the last few words seemed like they were just added in without a ton of support. While I don’t always think that the they say/I say stuff is really useful, In this case I think it would have been good to bring in more of an outside voice to contrast your argument, because I honestly can’t think of an argument against Laura having power over Waldo. However, you did do a good job with the attention grabber at the beginning of the paragraph, your unique voice was really clear in it which I really enjoyed. I think you do a nice job explaining things and then making a concise statement that brings it all together within paragraphs. It’s a good technique to hold attention and persuade readers as you put justification before a statement that someone may disagree with and form an opinion on while reading it. Also, I don’t know how it’s viewed in the context of this class, but I liked that you added a picture. It just makes since for a deconstruction of a scene to have an immediate reference. You did a pretty good job incorporating the different film terms and explaining their significance, maybe you could add more about why those angles and lighting techniques give those impressions. Overall, I think there is a really solid foundation here, you grabbed attention and used different film terms to deconstruct your scene, bringing in outside voices would help make your argument clearer.
ReplyDeleteHey Re'Nae,
ReplyDeleteUsing pictures in your essay was a great choice. As I was reading your paper I continuously referred back to the picture, and without it I would have been lost. Your analysis of the shots was well done, and it really helped proved your theory on Waldo and Laura's relationship. I agree with Shannon that it would have been useful to add and an explanation on how their relationship impacted the plot of the movie. I mean he did try to kill her in the end, so that dynamic between the two especially mattered. In class, we discussed how Laura was the only movie or book that we had read that did not have a femme fatale, so when you use the term "femme fatale" I was hoping you would have made an argument that she actually was one. To me, the only way she could have been considered one was because she had a toll on the men, specifically Waldo. He was obsessed with her, in love with her, but other than the fact that she had power over him, she doesn't necessarily fit the characteristics of a femme fatale. It seems to me that you actually argued against yourself, since a femme fatale usually uses their sexuality, while Laura didn't flaunt hers. Overall, I think your essay had a lot of quality content. Like I said, I couldn't have done a better job describing the Understanding Movie terms and applying them the way you did.